Sunday February 26, 2017

Valve recently brought SteamVR on Linux into public beta, but Phoronix didn’t have the best experience with it. Their early impressions suggest that Linux gamers are bound to run into driver, performance, tracking, and numerous other issues. But while the technical kinks should be patched up in time, there is still that problem of Linux’s comparatively tiny catalog of VR-supported gamesآ—the author notes that there are a grand total of three VR-only titles. Thanks to Kyle for this one.

The initial setup was certainly a headache and letdown with the problems encountered and knowing I am not the only one running into shared IPC compositor errors and other struggles. That certainly made it feel much more like an alpha than beta and cannot imagine a Windows gamer being willing to go through such strides. Even with being a dedicated Linux user for about the past decade and a half, I was frustrated and embarrassed by these initial SteamVR Linux woes being encountered on Linux in 2017.